Hopeless
by brainandheart
Summary: Imprisoned by Amon, Pema finds herself sharing her prison with someone unexpected and decides that maybe it's time to try and mend some fences.


The cell was large and bare, a metal box with a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a hard cot bolted to the wall. Pema flinched as the heavy steel door clanged shut behind her. Rohan whimpered, his green eyes scrunched up, and she immediately moved to the cot, gently bouncing her son to quiet him. She couldn't help but clutch him a little closer as she rocked him, feeling bitter relief that even though they had taken the rest of her family, at least they hadn't taken her baby.

Humming quietly, she stroked Rohan's cheek. He fell easily into a fitful sleep, for which she was very thankful. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths to push away the rising panic that threatened to overwhelm her at the thought of the unknown fates of her husband and elder children. She could see their faces before her, just as they were being separated, full of anxiety, terror. Her throat tightened. She just wished there was something she could do!

Though she could not airbend, she, like all Air Acolytes, had been well-trained in the forms and actual martial art of airbending, and she knew she would do anything to protect her child. Unfortunately, from a practical standpoint the infant very much hindered any effort she could make to fight back or escape. Not to mention that she hadn't yet recovered from giving birth…had it only been two days ago?

With a weary sigh, she stood and made her way to the barred window set into the door. As she peered up and down the cell-lined corridor, she instinctively swayed in place to keep Rohan calm. There was not a single Equalist guard in sight.

"Pema?" Her head snapped up at the familiar voice. Sure enough, a ragged-looking Lin Beifong appeared at the window in the cell across the hall. More surprised than she probably should have been considering she had witnessed Lin's capture, Pema's first instinctive question died on her lips. It was obvious what had happened. After all, no metal cell could hold the chief of the metalbending police, not unless…As if she could read Pema's thoughts, Lin's head bowed.

"He's got them, hasn't he?" Ferocity and grief mingled in the former chief's quiet words.

Pema's silence was answer enough, and Lin's heavy sigh rattled through the hall. When Lin spoke again, her voice was hard. "How?"

"They ran us down." Pema closed her eyes as flashes of memory assaulted her. The simplicity of that sentence could not convey the primal fear of being hunted or the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as the airship drew closer and closer and her children looked for reassurance that she couldn't give.

However, the answer seemed to satisfy Lin. The two began to drift quietly into their own thoughts, but Pema realized there was something she had to do. "Lin?"

"Hmm?"

"I just wanted to tell you that what you did for them—"

She snorted. "What? Are you going to thank me? It didn't work." Shadows draped Lin's features, but it didn't take much effort to imagine the bitter twist of her lips.

"That doesn't change what you did." It was Lin's turn for silence, but now that she had started Pema couldn't stop. "I owe you more than I could ever say, more than I could give." She paused, wanting to say so much more, wanting to say that she had never intended to hurt the earthbender, never wanted to hate her or incur her hatred, but she knew that Lin didn't want any gushing apologies. And so, in the end, the only words that meant anything were, "Thank you."

Heartbeats passed like hours in the stillness, but Pema had said what she needed to say. In her arms, Rohan woke up squirming, and Pema turned her attention to him. He needed to be fed soon, and probably needed to be changed as well, but she had no extra clothes for him.

_I'm so sorry, sweetheart_, she thought as Rohan gripped her finger. Wrapped up in caring for her son, she was turning away when Lin spoke once more.

"You're welcome." The other woman's voice was softer than she had ever heard it, and as Pema carried Rohan back to the cot, she couldn't help the tiniest of smiles from lifting her lips. Nothing had really changed, but somehow the situation seemed a little less hopeless.

* * *

**I am not sure if I pulled this off at all...This is just based on my headcanon that Lin was imprisoned in the same place as Pema, and also (my somewhat optimistic wish) that because of everything that's happened, these two won't have any animosity between them anymore. Feel free to tell me what you think :)  
**


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